How Jaguars' Schottenhimer Sees Interceptions as Teaching Points, And Why Lawrence Is 'Progressing Nicely'
To succeed, you must fail. No person or player, no matter how talented, becomes that way purely by luck. There are hours upon hours of work required to polish the blemishes. Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence has always been in the spotlight, but never one quite this bright.
As the top high recruit in the country, he received plenty of eyes…but not during practice at his small Cartersville High School. As a National Champion and Heisman finalist with the Clemson Tiger, Lawrence was one of the biggest names in the country…but colleges are awarded more privacy when it comes to practice.
But in the NFL, there is no such luxury. Every move, every rep, every “wow” moment and questionable decision is put under a microscope and examined from each angle and afternoon talk show. As such, Trevor Lawerence is sharing his inevitable rookie mistakes with any and all that want to watch.
Even as a No. 1 overall pick, there was destined to be a learning curve for Lawrence. Such is the plight of transitioning to the NFL from college.
“He is doing really good — the last day or two there has been good and there has been bad,” admitted passing game coordinator Brian Schottenheimer on Saturday.
Lawrence spent the first week trading days off with third year passer Gardner Minshew II for first team reps. In this past second week of camp, Lawrence received the bulk of first team reps, save Friday, when Minshew was inserted back into the start of the lineup.
During that time, Lawrence has punctuated wow moments that only a No. 1 overall pick could deliver, with mistakes that only a rookie would make. The key for Schottenheimer, as he explained, was to let Lawrence teach himself from each mistake.
“It’s just understanding why they happen, there are really two types of interceptions. There are bad decisions and bad throws — bad throws are going to happen and you’re going to miss a throw and sail it a little bit high, but the bad decisions can’t happen and two of the three that day were bad decisions. He had pressure on one and he tried to launch it, he was trying to throw it away.
“You just have to explain to him that whether it was intercepted or not, there was not a receiver in the area, so hey Trevor it’s going to be a penalty, ‘what’s the penalty?’ He thinks about it, ‘oh — intentional grounding.’ So it’s just making him communicate rather than me telling him. Tell me what would’ve happened even if it was incomplete and he’s got a great grasp of that.”
Friday, for example, Lawrence was missing the first wave of his normal —receiver corps, with Marvin Jones Jr. and DJ Chark both out for various reasons, Lawrence found himself throwing with a new hierarchy of receivers, some of whom he had little to no chemistry. It resulted in interceptions and pass break-ups throughout the first half of practice.
By the end of the day, the passer was putting the ball right where it needed to be, where only his receiver could make a catch. His lone bad ball in final team drills—or bad decision as Schottenheimer labeled—was a ball chunked up to the endzone in a situational drill that called for a prayer to the endzone as time expired.
“That’s what training camp is about,” posed Lawrence last Saturday. "Working out the kinks and really just owning our offense in the situations that were going in and against.”
Lawrence’s grasp on the playbook—and any subsequent missteps—are allowing him to grow quickly and exponentially, to the point of popping in on Schottenheimer no matter the hour.
“He is a guy that’s going to text you a question at 9:45 at night with questions. ‘Hey on the script it says this, is that this? What are you thinking on that?’ So you know he is working at it all the time.”
To succeed you must fail. There have been times this offseason and training camp that Trevor Lawrence has doing something in camp that would technically constitute a failure. But it does’t happen again. And that’s a sign of success for the Jacksonville Jaguars, according to Schottenheimer.
“He is progressing nicely, that’s what you do with a young quarterback. There are going to be interceptions, he’s thrown those, that’s going to happen — now if he keeps repeating those mistakes then that’s how you know that he’s not listening and not making those corrections. He’s not repeating those same mistakes, so that’s when you get excited.”
